Simon Cowell’s ‘The X Factor’ Cancelled After 17 Years
Simon Cowell’s popular talent show The X Factor has been canceled after 17 years, confirmed by U.K. broadcaster ITV.
“There are no current plans for the next series of The X Factor at this stage,” an ITV spokesperson said in a statement shared with Variety.
Created by Cowell in 2004, The X Factor aired 445 episodes over 15 series, with the last one being in 2018.
Cowell’s next venture will be musical quiz show Walk The Line for ITV and VOD platform ITV Hub.
The new show sees musical acts take to the stage to perform, while a panel of judges including Cowell decide who the top two performers of the evening are. The top two then face a decision in their bid to be crowned champion — to either go home with a cash prize or walk the line and play on. If chosen to stay in and top the leader board, they will then progress to the next show, facing a different cast of performers. The longer the performers can stay in the contest, the bigger the prize pot, with a high stake ‘stay or play’ moment at the end of each show. Each night, the reigning champion will be offered an even higher cash-out prize.
Last February, it was announced that The X Factor would be taking a break for 2020 but was slated to return for 2021. A few months later, ITV plc managing director Kevin Lygo said there was no guarantee The X Factor would ever return to the small screen. “It’s not definitely returning, it might return, and if it does the format will tweak,” he said. “Simon controls it more than we do. When does he want it to come back, how does he want to come back? Hopefully we can be part of it.”
The talent show has broken the careers of dozens of artists including One Direction, Little Mix, Leona Lewis and Olly Murs.
